


I Guess This Sort of Thing Really Does Happen...

by Felle



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-20
Updated: 2017-08-20
Packaged: 2018-12-17 16:26:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11855355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felle/pseuds/Felle
Summary: Ms. Kawakami receives an unexpected and very bruised house guest the night after the casino heist.





	I Guess This Sort of Thing Really Does Happen...

Sadayo had been looking forward to a quiet evening. All the papers were graded, her apartment was clean for once, and she hadn’t missed her favorite travel program. The only thing left was to curl up with some ice cream, a beer, and maybe fall asleep on her couch before doing it all again for one more week.

She _had_ been looking forward to that.

Instead, her dessert remained untouched while she sat on her hands and watched the television, her attention fastened tight to the news bulletin almost gleefully proclaiming the arrest of the Phantom Thieves’ leader. Her heart hammered against the wall of her chest as the news anchor went on and on about his capture outside of the courthouse. What was that fool doing there, right next to the main police station of all places…she could have screamed. It was so maddeningly frustrating, knowing what she knew and having to act surprised when she got into class in the morning and he wasn’t there. Of all the people to give her heart to, she thought.

The third repetition of the news report was so engrossing that she almost missed the chime of her doorbell. Slowly, Sadayo stood and tried to compose herself, but it was little use. If she got any sleep at all that night, she knew, it would be restless and worry-stricken. The doorbell chimed again.

“Yeah, yeah, it works,” she said under her breath as she went to the door and unlatched the bolt. The hinges creaked slightly as she pulled it open. “Excuse me, it’s very late—Kurusu? Niijima- _senpai_?”

Her stomach flipped over itself when she saw the sorry state her boyfriend was in, more bruise than not, glasses cracked and askew, dried blood under his nose as he stumbled, one arm slung over Sae’s shoulders. Akira looked at her and smiled weakly. “You know each other?” he asked.

Sae nodded. “We were classmates in high school, but you said this was your girlfriend’s place—oh. Oh!”

Akira shrugged his free shoulder, only to wince and groan. A heavy pang of sympathy cut through Sadayo’s heart, and she reached out for him before she thought better of it. She didn’t know how badly he was hurt or where, to say nothing of the public prosecutor right in front of them. Akira glanced up at Niijima, and she could see that one of the lenses of his glasses was cracked. “Don’t make a case of this, please…”

“I really don’t care, and I’ve got bigger things to worry about right now anyway,” Sae said with a furtive look up and down the hallway. “Kawakami, I hate to impose, but I had to get him out of the police station and I couldn’t bring him back to his guardian’s house. There’s no telling what’s being watched right now. Can I leave Kurusu with you until I can pick him up tomorrow?”

Her head was spinning, and rather than try to string an answer together, she took a step forward and carefully took Akira’s arm from around Sae’s shoulders. She wasn’t quite as tall as him, and he ended up leaning on her more than anything as she led him over to the couch. “Sorry for dropping in so suddenly, _Sensei_ ,” he said, whispering more than anything as she eased him down. His fingers brushed on her hand as he settled into the cushions.

“Don’t call me that now. What in the world happened to you…?”

“It’s a long story, and I just finished telling it once.” His voice was ragged, shallow, small. Sadayo liked the way he was so often quiet and introspective, but if the rest of him was as bad as his face, he wasn’t staying quiet of his own accord anymore. “You should get back, Niijima- _san_. Don’t let anyone think anything’s wrong.”

“Any messages to take back? You probably shouldn’t use your phone for a while, just in case.”

Akira wiped away a small trickle of fresh blood from his nose. “Can you ask Sojiro to feed my cat?”

Sae nodded, gave him one more sad look as she hovered there on the threshold, and slowly pulled the door shut. Her heels were still echoing down the hall when Sadayo knelt beside Akira and stroked a few locks of his hair. A bit of wet, sticky redness clung to her fingers when she pulled them away. He stared down into his lap, broken and battered and everything else she couldn’t stand to see in him, as her student or her boyfriend. A pit of anger welled in her gut suddenly, at whatever faceless, nameless force had done it all to him. “This might be past what a massage can help with,” she said softly.

He chuckled for a moment, only to have his expression screw up in pain. “Hurts to laugh,” he mumbled as he gripped at his side. “Hurts to do almost anything, actually.”

“It’s that bad…is there anything you can do?”

“Sitting doesn’t seem so bad, I can walk a bit, and I can lie down. On this side, I think something’s torn in my other shoulder.” He met her gaze with two black eyes, one with several blood vessels burst, and smiled the smallest bit. “And I can look at you. That’s helping.”

A little heat rose in her cheeks, and she laid her hand beside his, entwining her little finger around his thumb. “You shouldn’t say such things when you look like you ought to be in the hospital. If you lean on me, can you walk to the bathroom? I want to take care of these cuts,” she said, trembling at the answer to her next question. “Are there more? Ones I can’t see right now?”

Akira nodded and nudged his blazer aside, where there were clear blotches of red coming from underneath his shirt. Moisture pricked at the corners of Sadayo’s eyes. When she found her voice again, it was shaky, almost a mirror of his. “All right. This one is the good shoulder, right? The bathroom’s just down the hall, lean on me.”

She stood him up and let him slump most of his weight onto her side. He was lithe, with a good deal of wiry muscle on his frame, and at any other time the pressure would have been comforting, the sure embrace of a lover. As it was, Sadayo counted herself lucky that she got Akira to the bathroom with only a minimum of staggering on his part.

It wasn’t a very large room, but it would do. She put him on her bath stool and took her first aid kit from its little box below her towels. “Here, take an aspirin, it’ll help. I’ll wash your shirt and sew that rip in your pants when we’re done.”

“I never knew you were so domestic, Sadayo.”

His use of her name was slightly unusual, though there was turning out to be very little usual about the evening. She found she didn’t mind hearing it on his voice, ragged as it was, and raised an eyebrow. “Did you forget I was a maid?”

She huffed out a laugh before cutting herself off and wondering if he really had been hit hard enough to affect his memory. Was he concussed? Her lip ached as she drew it between her front teeth, and she crouched to hand him a cup of water to wash the pill down. “I thought that job might’ve made you sick of it, that’s all.”

“Oh.” Her sigh of relief echoed in the small room. “It’s not my favorite thing, but I don’t mind housework very much. Here, I’m going to ball these up and put them in your nose to soak up any blood left there.”

Akira didn’t have time to voice any objections before she did so and started dabbing rubbing alcohol onto a cotton swab. She carefully pressed the swab to his cuts, and her heart cracked a little every time he instinctively winced away from her touch and the sting that was sure to follow. He had already been through so much, his poor body pushed to its limit, and it took everything she had to cause him any more pain, even if it was in service to his health. Once she had disinfected and wiped away the blood from his cuts, she laid small bandages over his skin, trying and failing to make them seem unobtrusive. There was really no way to not make it look like he had been on the losing side of a bad fight, and she had to settle for hoping her work helped the cuts heal faster. She took the cotton from his nose and set it aside. “There, that’s the last one on your face. Put your arms down toward the floor, I’ll take your jacket and shirt off.”

“Thank you for all this,” Akira said as she slid his jacket off his shoulders. Sadayo undid the buttons on his shirt one by one, biting back tears as more and more cuts and bruises came into view. It wasn’t at all how she had first wanted to get his clothes off, a canvas of reds and blotching purples. “I’m sure you had better things to do with your evening.”

“Well, not that I wanted it to happen like _this_ , but I did want to see you tonight. If you can ever use your phone again, you’ll see my texts about going to the planetarium.” She doused another swab with rubbing alcohol, and Akira cringed. “Sorry, but the larger cuts here could get infected, so please bear with it a little longer.”

“All right. I trust you.”

It was hardly the first time any confidence had passed between them, they kept each other’s secrets, kept their entire relationship secret, but Sadayo couldn’t help feeling oddly touched at hearing it. “Good,” she said quietly, and cleaned the cuts on his chest before moving around to his back. Akira tensed and drew in a sharp breath when she put her hand on an unbruised spot between his shoulder blades, then relaxed and leaned back into her touch. “I’m so sorry…”

“You didn’t do this,” Akira said, reaching his good hand over the crook of his neck and lacing their fingers together. He was shaking, Sadayo felt. “Why are you apologizing?”

“I guess I don’t know what else to say.”

There was less for her to do on his back, and in a few minutes she was in front of him again, helping him push himself up with his one good arm so she could pull off his pants and set them aside with the rest of his clothes. She knew he was a healthy teenage boy and was likely going to behave as such, but a small twinge of excitement still coursed between her legs when she saw the outline in his boxers. “Geez, guys really do have one-track minds, don’t they…”

“Sorry,” Akira said, looking pointedly away. Sadayo shrugged and went back to cleaning and bandaging a cut on his knee.

“Now you’re the one jumping to apologize. I know it’s natural, and I’d be flattered if I had room for any feeling other than worry right now.” Still, she couldn’t help a bit of healthy curiosity, sparing a few furtive looks for her own personal reference. Finally she leaned back and sighed deeply. “I think that’s all of it. Here, let’s get you to bed, I’ll take the couch.”

Akira nodded and stood up with a bit more ease than before, and was able to make the short walk to the bedroom with only the wall for support rather than having his arm slung over Sadayo’s shoulders. She wouldn’t have minded supporting him a bit longer, really.

The light flicked on, and Sadayo helped Akira down onto her low tatami bed before making sure the space heater was working. “How’re you feeling now?” she asked as she went over to her dresser to get some nightclothes for herself. He was sitting up, at least, and from what she could hear his breathing didn’t seem especially labored anymore.

“Better, thanks.” He put his hand on his injured shoulder, but pulled it away with a grimace. “Mostly better. I’m sure I’ll crash soon, but with all the adrenaline I’m barely tired.”

“Let me put your shirt in the laundry and then I’ll bring you something.”

He gave her another nod, along with half a smile, before she slipped from the room and slumped against the wall. Sadayo wanted to cry, if only to relieve the burn and pressure in her sinuses, but she had pushed the tears back too well. Besides, somehow she knew that Akira would come limping out to comfort her if he heard crying. Instead she took a long, shuddering breath, went back to the bathroom, and set up her mini washer.

With his shirt soaking and a sewing kit and his pants tucked under her arm, Sadayo fixed another bowl of ice cream and brought everything back into her bedroom. Akira was examining his glasses, running the pad of his thumb along the crack in the right lens, but perked up and put them back on when she returned. He had pulled the comforter politely over his lap, and Sadayo set a tray for him before sitting at his side. Akira picked at his ice cream while she fixed the rip near the bottom of his pants. “So, without getting too deep into it…I probably won’t be at school for a while,” he said glumly.

Her heart tightened, and she nearly pricked her finger when she brought the needle through the fabric. “Can you get into it at all? Given everything, I think I’ve earned that much.”

Akira nodded once and started to talk while she worked. Sadayo knew it had to be a very streamlined version of events, but she did manage to grasp his explanations of things like _palaces_ and _shadows_ , even if the whole thing sounded ridiculous. The Tokyo subway being a massive labyrinth? Pyramids and flying banks and space stations? She decided to tamp down her skepticism and repay the trust he had placed in her. They—and it was always _they_ , he never once named any of the other Phantom Thieves, though she had her suspicions—had been set up, and their counter-operation he couldn’t quite remember yet had succeeded. Whoever had wanted him dead thought the job was done, and he had to fade from daily life for a while. Not unlike a phantom, he noted wryly.

“Then Niijima- _san_ drove me here,” Akira said, swirling his spoon in what was left of his ice cream. “So now we have to figure out who set us up and stop them. You…didn’t believe any of that, did you?”

“I’ll withhold judgement for now, if you were lying I think you’d come up with something more believable. All that running around you talked about would explain the massages, though. And here I thought you just wanted to see me.” He gave her a full smile then, a real one, and Sadayo matched it before she checked her watch. “It’s really late, you need some sleep so your body can heal. Be back in a minute.”

She whisked the empty bowls away and left them to soak in the kitchen sink, took Akira’s shirt from the washer and hung it to dry, and shuffled some of the pillows on the couch to make a space large enough for her to lie down. He was still sitting up when she returned to get her nightclothes, prodding at his bruises and seeing which ones hurt more than others.

“Just call if you need something, I’ll be right in the other room—”

“Sadayo?”

She turned back toward him from getting extra sheets out of her dresser. There was something endearing about how small he seemed, tucked up in her bed and absent his usual slouch. “Yes?”

“Please don’t leave me alone,” Akira said, staring down at the comforter. “Please. I know that was a line we weren’t going to cross yet, but…I get the most awful dreams after we handle the things that need calling cards.”

Her hand hovered over the light switch, feet still halfway across the threshold. She knew she _could_ resist the temptation that would surely present itself, but she wasn’t sure that she _would_. The ceiling light flicked off, leaving only a thin bar of yellow from a streetlight on the wall, and the door slid shut as she stepped back into the room. “Special circumstance, all right?”

“Thank you.”

She heard him suck in a breath as she pulled off her shirt and unclasped her bra with her back to him. There was a pleasant flood of self-satisfaction at that, knowing what her silhouette was doing to him. It was almost a shame to put on her nightshirt, but he groaned as quietly as he could when she changed her pants, and she was very pleased with herself as she settled in on the other side of the bed. “Hmm.”

“What is it?”

“I usually sleep on—” Sadayo put her hand on Akira’s chest— “this side.”

“Do you want to switch?”

The sheets bunched up as she shuffled herself over to his side, where his good arm wrapped around her shoulders. He was warm, and she was careful to rest her head where she knew there weren’t bruises. “No need. I can’t imagine how I’d get in _more_ trouble, anyway.”

“I can think of one way…”

She didn’t answer his playful taunt for several minutes, or the way he squeezed at her shoulder, but merely traced a formless pattern over his bare chest with her finger. That was another line, _the_ line, the point where she told herself their dalliance couldn’t go while Akira was still in her class. Of course… _that’s the best part_ , he’d said with a wolfish grin when she had reminded him of their pre-existing relationship. Her student or not, he’d always been very open about what he wanted.

Carefully, and before she had a chance to talk herself out of it, Sadayo worked her way out of his grasp and rolled to the other side of the bed, where her nightstand was. “Wait, I’m sorry, I won’t say any other weird stuff—what are you doing?”

“Getting a condom,” she said, heart pounding in her chest. Finally her hand settled on a small, smooth packet in the drawer, and she rolled back toward him while pushing the covers back slightly. With her eyes having adjusted to the low light, she could see that he’d been stunned into silence. “Unless the big bad Phantom Thief is all talk?”

Akira moved his arm so she could nuzzle into his side again, arching his back when she replaced her hand and trailed around his stomach. With the sheets pushed away, the prominence in his boxers was painfully obvious, but she kept herself from flitting down to the waistband until he said something affirmative. One moment passed, then another, and a few cracks began to appear in her resolve. “I don’t want to pressure you,” Sadayo whispered, drawing her hand away. “I’ll understand if you don’t want this. I just thought that since you’re going to keep going with this Phantom Thief thing, and neither of us know what’ll happen…I know I’d regret it if I didn’t at least offer, especially after you’ve done so much for me.”

“Of course I want this,” he said, wasting no time in answering her. “I want _you_. I have since I met you in April. You don’t know how many readings I missed because I was looking at you instead, _Sensei_.”

“Don’t say it like that…”

Sadayo sat up and shuffled off her shirt and pants, tossing them down by the foot of the bed. With a moment to recline there and let the warm air hit her skin, she could feel his gaze on her, feel the heady spike of arousal that radiated from between her legs and the wetness that came with it. His hand reached out for her hip, but stopped until she took it and laid it on her thigh. “You can touch me, Akira. I—I want you to.”

His hand, smooth and warm and sure, drifted upward to her hip, the slight tuck of her waist, the swell of one breast, and finally into her hair as she moved farther down the bed. Sadayo hooked two fingers into his waistband and pulled down, tamping down a jolt that raced through her belly at the sight of him laid bare for her. His grip on her hair tightened when she reached forward and wrapped her hand around his shaft, feeling the hardness there, offering a few light, testing strokes. A little bead of wetness rolled down toward her thumb, and it was with trembling hands that she tore open the condom wrapper as she sat up and straddled him. He was obediently still as she rolled it down onto his shaft and offered one light squeeze, though it was the stillness of a drawn bow, ready to explode with energy. “I wish I was in a better position to reciprocate,” Akira said, strained and faint. There was a tinge of shame on his voice, and Sadayo leaned down to kiss that away. His lips were slightly chapped, but she couldn’t have cared less when she felt him push up against her.

“Don’t worry about that, this is for you. I love you, and I want to give you something good to remember about this night.”

She meant to say more, but the wonderful feeling of fullness as she eased herself onto him pushed her thoughts to the side. His hips shifted up to meet her, and after a few seconds she had taken him to the hilt. Neither of them moved, falling back into another needful kiss instead, until everything in her demanded friction. Sadayo sat up, mindful not to press on any bruises, and flexed slightly until she had eked a moan out of him. “But you’re not in as bad a position as you think, if you want to reciprocate so much.”

His good hand followed hers from where it had settled on her thigh to her stomach, trailing down toward the thin patch of dark hair in front of her legs. “Right— _ah_ …right there, you’ve got it. Little circles.”

With Akira’s thumb making a slow circuit of her clit, Sadayo began to move, rocking back and forth to acclimate him to the motion. Another surge of arousal raced through her when his thumb flicked just right, and the pressure in her mounted, coiling like a spring wound too tight.

“A little faster, please?” she asked, and Akira was happy to comply, ramping up his rhythm to match the roll of her hips. Her voice was shaking, but she wanted him to feel that he was still participating despite his injuries. “So—so what were you thinking about when you should have been doing your readings?”

“Nothing I can repeat,” Akira said, every word tight, thin, more whimper than anything as she switched up her motion, pushing upward with her legs and then letting gravity bring her back down.

“Try me…”

His hand worked faster still, hips snapping in counter to her instrokes, and her head swam as every muscle in her body began to draw taut. “I wondered how sturdy your desk was,” he gasped out, so obviously losing his control as his back arched, “how pretty you’d look bent over it.”

The balance Sadayo had been teetering on crumbled underneath her at that, at the thought of him taking her in her classroom, and all the pressure he’d so carefully helped her build burst in an instant. Heavy waves of relief and ecstasy crested over her, pulling her under, and the way her body shook carried him off too. Akira grabbed her thigh and lost himself in three frantic thrusts, grip tightening on her leg as he came.

Both of them needed a moment to soothe their overtaxed muscles as they drifted back down to rest on the bed, silent but for their heavy breathing. Neither of them moved to separate at first, and instead Sadayo leaned down for one slow, gentle kiss. His hand threaded into her hair again, holding her still against him, holding a moment without Phantom Thieves or conspiracies or anything that wasn’t them as if it was all the gold in the world.

Eventually, even with the heater, the chill in the air began to reassert itself, and Sadayo eased off of him to clean up. The slight, gnawing feeling of emptiness had passed by the time she returned from the bathroom, and Akira had fixed the sheets in her absence. He pulled back one corner to let her climb in, nestling at his side without a care for her discarded clothes. Despite all the damage, the feeling of his arm wrapping around her felt safe and comforting. “Ah—was that your first time?” she asked. Akira nodded, and she smiled to herself. “And was it how you thought it would be? Minus the injuries, of course.”

“Better,” he said as their legs tangled up together. “I love you so much.”

“I’m still trying to figure out why that is.” Akira frowned at that, but Sadayo only kissed him once more. “I love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks very much for reading! If you liked this, you may be interested in some of my other _Persona_ work:
> 
> [A Portrait of the Shogi Player as a Young Woman](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11805870) – Yusuke and Hifumi’s Valentine’s date.
> 
> [Empress’s Justice](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15770388) – Haru goes back and finds a fatally wounded Akechi in Shido’s palace.
> 
> [Fool’s Judgment](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14370858/chapters/33177117) – The lead-up to, and aftermath of, Sae’s palace if she and Joker were dating.
> 
> [High Priestess, pǝʇɹǝʌuI](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16708519/chapters/39187396) – Genderswapped (sort of) High Priestess confidant, featuring my rabid little honey badger of a female protagonist, Akane
> 
> [Kintsukuroi](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14760477/chapters/34131807) – Some scenes from a setting where Sae and Yusuke are an item.
> 
> [Our Last Private Moments](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16092479) (Persona 3) – Theo and his guest's last date.
> 
> [Sense Memory](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16536104) – Yusuke, whose world comes to him in impressionistic bursts and flashes, wonders if he's good enough at all to be part of the Phantom Thieves. Shukita.
> 
> [Singles’ Retreat](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16556390) – Rather than tag along with any of their friends in relationships, Haru rents out a ryokan for herself, Ryuji and Yusuke for a week. What ever shall they do to keep themselves busy? (Yusuke/Haru/Ryuji, incredibly NSFW)
> 
> [Temperance, pǝʇɹǝʌuI](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15355578/chapters/35631108) – Genderswapped Temperance confidant, featuring a romantic bent and my rabid little honey badger of a female protagonist, Akane.
> 
> [Weekends in Shibuya](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11697408) – A little future Sae/Joker piece I did for a friend when they were sick.


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